I have slowly developed my taste in music, starting from the music my parents listened to, then what I discovered when I was a student in the sixties, and influenced by the various countries I have lived in.
I was born in the province of Limburg, in the South East of the Netherlands and my parents listened to the 'popular classics', and to Dutch and some local Limburg popular songs.
At the age of 17 I moved to Amsterdam where I lived for most of the next 30 years. In Amsterdam I discovered all kind of music, Kurt Weil's songs with text by Bertold Brecht sung by Lotte Lenya, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Mamas and the Papas, Ike and Tina Turner, Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick, the Kingston Trio, Miriam Makeba, Harry Belafonte, Ray Charles, Janice Joplin, Jimi Hendrix (and many more). I also discovered Georges Brassens, Gilbert Becaud, Edith Piaff and the best chansonnier of them all, Jacques Brel. Other interests are Jazz and Blues and the European classical tradition.
My greatest discovery was folk music through a tour of England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Wales.
I ended up living in Ireland for three years when I was about 30 years old, and still regularly listen to recordings of brilliant groups like Sweeney's Man and Planxty.
From 1996 till 2000 I lived for four years in Panjab, which added an interest in various types of sub-continental music, like the Sikh Sabads (Sikh spiritual music), Kawalis (Sufi spiritual music) and Gazals (North Western love poems). In general I love listening to all Subcontinental music in classical rágs.
Music is great, music is spiritual, music can be mind blowing, make you sit and swing while sitting on your chair, regardless of what music it is. Music moves the soul, music blows the mind.
Harjinder Singh, Man in Blue
